Former leading New Zealand publisher and bookseller, and widely experienced judge of both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, talks about what he is currently reading, what impresses him and what doesn't, along with chat about the international English language book scene, and links to sites of interest to booklovers.

Saturday, September 17, 2016

Recent whale sightings in New Zealand art and literature

A lecture to be held
next week at Victoria University of Wellington will explore Gregory O’Brien’s
“sightings” of whales in contemporary New Zealand art and literature.

The lecture, titled Always song in
the water, will analyse the ways in which whales are used as metaphors and
potent symbols, and continue to surface, often quite surprisingly, in all
manner of personal and cultural narratives.

“When a whale appears in
a work of art, poetry, or story, it can be serving all sorts of purposes and
doing all sorts of things. This is why it excites me as a subject,” says Mr
O’Brien.

He describes whales as
“the ambassadors of the ocean” and aims to draw comparisons between humans,
whales, and the ocean itself in his lecture, while also bringing people’s
attention to other migratory species of the ocean including “jandals, shipping
containers, and plastic”.

“I see whales in my mind
as an entity between the environment out there and the human world. There is
that fascinating connection between whales and humans—we are both mammals, we
have similar social and family structures, languages, and love for music and
sounds.”

The lecture will
reference New Zealand artists and literary figures such as Colin McCahon, Witi
Ihimaera, Anna Jackson, Jo Torr and John Hovell.

“When I reference these
artists, I’m exploring their work and expressions of whales in an open ended
way. Whales, and the ocean, are vital ingredients of who we are and where we
are, living in an island in the middle of the ocean, as New Zealanders.”

Mr O’Brien is an
established New Zealand poet and artist and the 2015-16 Stout Memorial Fellow.
This lecture draws on a chapter from a book he has been working on during his
fellowship, titled ‘We went ashore one morning’ - art, literature and the
environment, which analyses the way paintings and poems can speak to, for,
and of a place. In 2012 Mr O’Brien was awarded the Prime Minister's Award for
Literary Achievement (Non-fiction). The same year he received a Laureate Award
from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand. In the New Year's Honours, 2013-14, he
was awarded a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the
arts.